I actually thought about that for a while, and I'll share my thoughts. Apologies in advance, I'm pretty sure this is going to be a whole lot of text once again.
Obviously, what Josy or Maya might do exactly depends on how the story will develop, but I believe it should be possible for them to redeem themselves.
The first question would be if it's even an issue that these two aren't too popular among players. I think it is.
To elaborate - if we are looking at Quinn, for example, I would argue it's actually a good thing that many dislike her, because she is intended to be a divisive character, and so far the game allowed players to act towards her accordingly.
In contrast, Maya and Josy are close friends with the MC, and if a player strongly dislikes a character that the player character is supposed to like, they are probably going to feel at least a little bit disconnected from the game, and that's never a good thing.
Right now, some might feel they'd rather be done with Maya and Josy for good, but if they were to disappear from the scene I think it would actually make it worse. After all, they were desperate for the MC to give them another chance - so now that they finally reconciled after all this drama, not actually being friends with each other would not only make Maya and Josy look bad, but also the MC and that entire story arc. I'd rather have them fixed.
So in order to fix them, let's look at what's wrong with them. Why exactly do people dislike them, apart from how how that reconciliation scene went down?
I'd say it's mostly that while they have been pretty close to the MC in the early stages of the season, there was no significant progress with either girl ever since. On the contrary.
- Josy came out of the gate especially strong, making out with the MC in the first couple of minutes, and inviting him to some sexy time not long after. It felt like she was about to dump her anonymous boyfriend in favour of MC - instead things got complicated, to say the least.
- Maya let the MC move in with her when he was in desperate need of a place to stay. That was pretty cool - but just when things were starting to heat up between her and MC, she fucked him over pretty badly. To make things worse, after the MC had forgiven her, we found out she had lied about her being in a relationship - not once, but twice.
This in itself probably wouldn't be that much of an issue, but it's certainly not something to write home about if you compare it to our recent progress with all the other main ladies:
- We had our first date with Jill, had a blast and shared a passionate kiss.
- Sage allowed the MC to stay at her place, they are now friends with benefits and have gone all the way for the first time.
- Bella allowed the MC to stay at her place, was surprisingly caring, and there was even some sexytime in her bathroom.
Plus, if someone doesn't want to actively pursue either of these three, all those intimate moments are avoidable, at least for now. They are not forced on players the way Josy and Maya are, so at least there's little reason to be annoyed by them.
Either way, what Jill, Sage and Bella have in common is that at some point, they took the MC into their homes and took care of him when he was in trouble. Also, so did Derek.
It's so easy to like these characters because they were friends in need. They have proven that they care about the MC, and I believe that's exactly what Josy and Maya will have to do. Josy has been all talk so far (although that's not entirely her fault), and Maya's signs of care where undone by signs of betrayal.
So what I'm thinking is that they have to do something, anything, that only a real friend would do. After that, they might be allowed to ride off into the sunset, but they should do something meaningful before that. Also, I think it's important that they get their individual moments with the MC instead of constantly apparing as a happy couple, for obvious reasons.
Again, they can only do whatever the story allows them to do and personally, I'm not much into speculating, but I don't see the MC leading an entirely carefree life in future seasons. I have no clue what is going to happen, but I'm sure there will be dark times ahead for the MC, and there will be plenty of opportunities for someone to step up and be the best friend they can possibly be.
